Prep Volleyball: Keith’s Iman McGary commits to UConn

After leading Keith to back-to-back Class 1A state titles as a sophomore and a junior, McGary has committed to play Division I volleyball for the University of Connecticut.

“It has always been a dream of mine to go to a huge school,” said McGary, who chose UConn over the University of Houston. “If it’s something that I want, I do my best to go out and get it. This school is about 30,000 people. It’s huge. The education is great, the coaches are great. I just absolutely love it.”

On the same day that McGary visited UConn, she met coach Kris Grunwald, who was settling into his new role. Grunwald took over the reins of the volleyball program in April. He replaced Holly Strauss-O’Brien after nine seasons. The Huskies finished 14-19 and 5-13 in The American Athletic Conference.

Grunwald came to UConn after spending the past two years as an assistant coach at Auburn and was Auburn’s head coach in 1998-99.

Grunwald’s staff has a familiar face for McGary in assistant coach Sarah Cullen, who is a Sycamore native and a former Club Fusion player. McGary plays for Club Fusion and said that Cullen, who competed at DePaul and later served as an assistant coach at Georgetown, was familiar with her game.

“She has been watching me growing up and I thought that it was great to find out she is a Club Fusion alum,” said McGary, who last season led the Cougars with 323 kills.

New Keith coach Steve Williams said McGary has a great work ethic.

“The type of player they are getting is one who is like a sponge,” Williams said. “She wants to do whatever will help the team and to do what the coaching staff wants her to do.”

McGary and libero Alex Nunez, who has committed to Loyola-Chicago, will be the only returning starters for Keith.

McGary and Nunez join former players Jordan Haverly (Indiana) and Adeja Lambert (Michigan) to commit to Division I schools since the Cougars’ program started in 2002.